St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-19
The Sea of Fire Rolled in Remorseless
Waves Up Central Corridor to
the Roof,
And Enveloped in its Awful Embrace the
Agonized and Utterly Helpless
Victims.
Gallant Work Done by the Firemen
in Rescuing the Endangered
Guests.
Frightful Leaps for Life--A Partial
List of the Dead and
Wounded.

BUFFALO. \. Y. March 1S.-The Rich
nond hotel and ST. James hall were burned
early this melnng. A number of lives
were lost and many people were injured.
The building is situated at the corner OF
Main and Eagle streets, extending through
to Washington street. The fire was dis
covered Ill $50 o'clock in the new Richmond
hotel. An alarm was sounded and the fire
department responded promptly The
house contained large number of guests,
and their heartrending shriekS could plainly
be heard. Ladders were raised as soon as
possible and as many as could were taken
out. 4 number of them were unable to
effect their escape. At 4 O'Clock the entire
Richmond, ST. James hall and other prop
erty in the block were doomed to speedy
destruction. The whole place burned like
tinder. The corridor in the center of the
building
ACTED AS A GREAT FUNNEL,
and the lames streamed upwards. The
guests found themselves imprisoned by
walls of fire. The screams of the unfortu
mates could be heard for blocks. and at
many of the windows they could be seen in
their night clothes calling wildly for help.
At one of the third floor windows two
guests were seen by the crowd to tall back
wards into the flames. One man jumped
from the fifth floor to the roof of a two
story building adjoining. He was seriously
injured. The rapidity of the fire. cutting
off means of escape, led some persons to
leap for life from the windows. Others got
down the fire escapes or on ladders raised
by the department The shrieks and cries
of the people in the upper stories of the
burning structure were heartrending. One
man. mad with terror. leaped from third
story window and was picked up from the
stone sidewalk OH Main street
MANGLED AND BLEEDING CORPSE.
Several who succeeded in making their
escape were badly injured and burned and
some of these will probably die. Ot.etsi
more fortunate, escaped with slight injur
;es. Robert Stafford, senior proprietor of
<he hotel, with his wife occupied rooms on
the second floor and had narrow escape.
Terror overcame everybody, and even those
who escaped in safety were in many cases
pr ostrated by their awful experiences.
There were 125 persons in the motel, sew
enty of whom were transient guests, eight
ooarders and the remainder being porters
and bell boys, the families of the proprie-
tors and clerks. Twenty-Five of these were
rescued from the windows by the firemen,
twenty-five are at the hospitals and large
number made their escape by other means.
THE SPREAD OF THE FLAMES
was frighttul in its rapidity. The elevator
shaft served as tlue for the flames and
they rushed up to the top floor in few
moments. AS the guests were aroused and
saw the interior exits cut off they turned to
the windows. They could be seen in their
night clothes standing out clear and vivid
before the lurid background of the flames.
Their screams were horrible to hear and
they could be heard for blocks. The flames
spread to the southeast side Of the hotel
first The firemen did noble work and con-
fined the fire to the narrow limits of the
buildings named. The work of rescue had
many exciting incidents. The telegraph
wires We're as usual. in the way of the
ladder brigade, and much valuable time was
lost in getting the ladders past them.
Perhaps the most thr ling escape
of any was that of Pres Whitta-
ker, step-son of Proprietor Stafford. He
roomed on the fifth story and whe n aroused
stepped 20 the window and looked down
for few seconds. Then he
DELIBERATELY DRESSED HIMsLLF,
and emerging from the window, stood on
the stone Gaping above the window be-
meath. From this Gaping he stepped to
the next one along the front of the building,
and proceeded in this manner to the Hayes
truck and ladder at the other extremity of
the front. The nerve and coolneSs dis
played were remarkable.
Among the brave deeds of the tiremen
was one deserving of special mention. Dis
trct Engineer Edward Murphy was on a
ladder reScuing some of the occupants OF
the hotel. AT all upper story window was
one of the female domestics. He shouted
to her to remain where she was and lie
would come up and save her. The poor
creature. frantic with terror. instead of
obeying, leaped from the window and
literally threw herself at Murphy. This
caused him to lose his balance on the ladder,
but he hung on with one hand and caught
the girl around the neck, holding her firm ly
until he could regain his equilibrium, VIII ell
he slid down the ladder bearing her safe tt
the ground. Among the guests at the Rich
mond last night was party of insurance
men numbering dozen or more, who had
come to Buffalo to adjust the losses OF thei
companies on the Miller. Creiner Il Co. fire
The following is
4 CORRECT LIST
of this party: Col. j. f. Bassett and Mr.
Crane, of the Etna Insu rance company. o
Hartford, Conn; NJ. o. Dennis of tn
Roval Insurance company. of England; w
S. Dewey, of the artfOrd Insurance com
pany. of Hartford. Conn: w. Dubers o
the Commercial Union company: c. A
Furness, of the Liverpool, London & Globe
w. P. Land of the Phoenix company. o
Hartford; w. J. Mackay, of the
Springfield Insurance company; L. S. Nor
gan, of the Home Insurance company
j. T. McCurdy. of the Continental com
pany; o. W. Palmer, of the Franklin com
nany, of Philadelphia; II. b. Smith, of tn
North British and Mercantile company
James II. Van Buren,. of the Connection
company; W. H. Van Every, of the West
chester company; Willard Welch, of th
City of London Insurance company. Th
new hotel, christened the Richmond, fur
nished and decorated with rare taste an
elegance, was opened for business on Eel
90. less than month ago. When tn
tenants on the first floor moved out on Ma
1. the additional room gained would hav
been turned into an Office and cafe and tn
hotel. when settled, was expected to
uncommonly attractive and popular. On
of the most admired features of the Ricl
mond was the .'rotunda," so called, ret
tangular
OPEN COURT
N the middle of the building covered by
,kvlight 1t was pleasant place for til
guests to gather-galleries are in the rt
funda on each floor-and visitors said
reminded them of some of the finest {
Southern hotels which had this feature
The main stairways and two eevato
clustered around this court and when tn